1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to an electric generator and a method for inspecting an electric generator.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Electric generators are known to have a casing that houses a stator and a rotor.
The rotor supports a fan that, during operation, makes the gas (typically air or hydrogen) contained within the casing circulate, in order to cool down the stator and rotor.
The casing is usually provided with a door, to allow operators to enter it, for example for maintenance operations.
In this respect, when periodical maintenance operations are carried out, the operators enter the generator casing and, after having checked the stator, rotor and the other components inside of the casing, carry out the needed maintenance operations.
It is clear that this procedure requires generator outages that are disproportionately long when compared to the maintenance operations to be effectively carried out, since the operators can discover the damaged or troubling parts, to then collect possible spare parts that could also not be available, only when they actually access the inner of the casing.
In addition, since during generator operation the inside of the casing cannot be accessed, in case problems arise, it is not possible to check the conditions of the stator, rotor or other components inside of the casing.